Starting “The Daughter Also Rises”

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Episode #499 was spotted on Friday, January 20, 2012. Written by Rob LaZebnik, PABF06 “The Daughter Also Rises” will air on FOX on Sunday, February 12, 2012. Lisa is smitten with a new boy in town (guest-voiced by Michael Cera),
while Bart & Milhouse, inspired by The Mythcrackers television show (with voices from special guests stars Adam Savage & Jamie Hyneman), try to crack some of the myths they’ve heard about at Springfield Elementary for many years.

Musically speaking, we spotted 42 cues (!) in the episode, covering all the romance for Lisa and all the adventure for Bart & Milhouse.

Many readers have commented that they enjoy our use of “classical” music in the show. In “The Daughter Also Rises” we get to toss in a great old chestnut, “The Light Cavalry Overture” by Franz von Suppé. I got to spend the afternoon editing and choosing just the right bars to use in the montage so the parts that Al Jean wants to hear are in the shots while also maintaining the right tempo and “hitting” the right moments. It’s times like these when I get to be more musical and not just technical on the show.

Reader Bea Simmons recently left me a comment with a link to a very fun (for me, at least) video. I remember this day very well, but not the camera crew doing their thing during recording. Well, I’m glad they did and I’m also glad that someone was able to post this video. If you go to YouTube to view the video, read the description. Cracks me up! Thanks, shiftercar!

That’s it for now. Just wanted to squeeze in a brief update before we spot episode #500 this coming Friday, January 27. Also, the party for cast & crew celebrating episode #500 is in a few weeks. I’ll take my camera and post my thoughts afterward. Don’t forget that PABF05 “Moe Goes From Rags to Riches” with guest voice Jeremy Irons airs this Sunday, January 29, 2012 on FOX.

Finally, my birthday is this Saturday, January 28! Cash gifts are always appreciated 😉

61 thoughts on “Starting “The Daughter Also Rises””

  1. Could you please tell me the name of the classical piece that plays during Stradivarius Cain’s flashback on the episode “The Spy Who Learned Me”? It’s been in my head forever and I can’t seem to find it anywhere. Thank you so much!

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    • I’m not sure what you mean by “flashback” – I don’t remember Cain having a flashback but, of course, all of Homer’s interactions with Cain are “fantasy”. Anyway, there wer several classical works in the episode. May I point you to my blog post about that episode?

      Thanks so much for reading and commenting.

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  2. AHHHHH it’s been driving me crazy please can you tell what’s the piece of music played in “elementary school musical” when Lisa goes to Sprooklyn it sounds all New Yorky?? I know I’ve heard it before!

    thank you!!

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  3. Hello, could you tell me what is the song which El Puerco played on the guitar in the episode The Daughter Also Rises? Thank you.

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  4. Hello, I’m such a huge fan of The Simpsons and of the music that sets the tone for every scene in every episode. There is one song, in particular, that I love and that I really feel a sort of connection with and that’s Alf Clausen’s arrangement that is suppose to sound similar to La Vie En Rose by Edith Piaff. To me, that arrangement is better than La Vie En Rose. Is there a longer recording of that cue anywhere and can it be purchased? *The cue can be heard in “The Daughter Also Rises” season 23 episode 13; when lisa is with her date outside a cafe drinking juice.

    Thank you,
    Jor-El

    Reply ↓

    • Thank you for your comment and for your loyal fandom.

      Unfortunately, due to a huge, complicated web of legal entanglement, none of the music from the show is available for purchase or download other than the music that has been made available on our 3 previous CD releases.

      Alf and I have discussed the possibility of another CD featuring cues (the previous CDs were all about songs and various versions of the theme), so we’ll see if that ever comes to pass.

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      • I hope so too. Those cues are fantastic and I’m sure I’m not the only one that would love to have an album that I could play whenever I want.
        Thank you very much,
        Jor-El

  5. Hello! Please, i would very much like to know what the classical piece of music is from the episode The spy who learned me? It was background to the R.I.P spoof of supersize me!?

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    • The first piece in our faux documentary – the bombastic orchestral cue – was an original composition by Alf Clausen that was inspired by “O Fortuna” from “Carmina Burana” by Carl Orff. The second – the gentle piano solo – was “Gymnopedies” by French composer Erik Satie.

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  6. Hi, in the episode “the daughter also rises” what is the name of the song playing when Homer eats a rose bud on Valentine’s day while waiting for Marge? Many thanks!

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  7. Please help
    in simpsons 23 episode 13 the daughter also rises, what rap song plays when Lisa closes her eyes, and then opens and sees homeless in trash, man washing in fountain?

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  8. Hi, there! I’m a big fan of The Simpsons, been following it for years. I absolutely enjoy the musical part of the show, almost every single episode, and now I know whom to thank for! My hat goes off to you, Maestro! Congratulations on both your upcoming birthday and the 500th episode!
    Qucik question though: what’s the name of the (Italian?) song playing when Lisa and Nick ride on bumper cars, watch bully-run and write together at Moe’s? In one of your earlier responses, you said something like “It’s an original composition by Alf Clausen that’s supposed to sound like La Vie En Rose.”, but I googled and just couldn’t find a match. If this is the song I’m asking about, can you be a little more specific and kind and tell me more about it, like who’s the singer and the exact name of the song? Thanks a million

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    • Ah, sorry, I misunderstood the first time. Ok, let’s clear it all up.

      The cue for Lisa & Nick having juice at an outdoor cafe as Lisa sees Nick, then sees the real goings-on in the town around them is the cue written by Alf in the style of “La Vie En Rose”. The song that plays for their “dating montage” is a french song called “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien” sung By Edith Piaf.

      Thanks for stopping by and for your kind good wishes.

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      • Hi Chris,

        Just wanted to say that you and the team had a great selection of music for this episode. I really enjoyed the juxtaposition of musical genres (when Lisa and Nick are at the outdoor cafe) between “La Vie En Rose” and Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power”. (I’m thankful for this blog as I wasn’t sure about the latter track). The montage went really well to “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien” – a song that I really enjoyed when used in the movie “Inception”, and obviously having very different connotations in this episode!

        Keep up the great work!

      • I also thought the music switching back-and-forth at the cafe was very clever. Sometimes music just pops its head in and out, punctuating scenes, but I thought the score for this episode really added an extra layer of emotion to the story.

        Thanks for checking in.

  9. Hey,
    What’s the name of the song playing in the couch gag (I recognise it, I just don’t know what it’s called, which really gets on my nerves! gah!)

    Also, I loved the couch gag, brought me a few laughs. Plus, the episode is another example of a classic Simpsons-esque episode too. great work and kudos to the cast and crew.

    Reply ↓

      • Unfortunately, due to a huge, complicated web of legal entanglement (permissions, right, royalties, residuals), none of the music from the show is available for purchase or download other than the music that has been made available on our 3 previous CD releases. Alf and I have discussed the possibility of another CD featuring cues (the previous CDs were all about songs and various versions of the theme), so we’ll see if that ever comes to pass. Let FOX know you’d like to have the music available for download and let’s see what happens!

    • They’re still there but they’re different. Check out this image of the progress of one of my favorite comic strip characters from one of my favorite comic strips Snoopy over the years See how much he changed? Or how about this? VW Bug then and now Nothing in life, especially creative/artistic things, stays the same. One man’s “sucks” is another man’s “can’t live without it”. You have changed as well over the years. Have you stopped to consider that “The Simpsons” has changed in one direction while you have changed in the opposite direction where humor is concerned? Are the things you found hysterical in elementary school or high school still as funny to you today?

      Whether “Peanuts”, The VW Bug or “The Simpsons” has changed for better or worse is a judgment individuals have to make for themselves and there is no right or wrong evaluation. You love these things (and the way they have evolved over the years) or you don’t.

      When you ask “Why does ‘The Simpsons’ suck so badly now?” you’re question makes a value judgment for everyone – “The Simpsons” sucks. What would be a more appropriate question is “I really don’t like what’s happened to ‘The Simpsons’ over the past few years. Why do you think that is and what can be done to fix it?” The difference between the two questions is that in the first you presume to speak for everyone and in the second you are speaking for yourself.

      Thanks for the thought-provoking comment.

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      • I’m 14 so I’m still in school and I think (and a lot of other people think) it’s declined heavily over the years, when I watch episodes from the 90s I think they’re very hilariously witted and at the same time emotionally depthful with a great storyline, these days all I see is a talking rag, Homer on TV or the Simpsons getting rich over an overly stupid and pointless thing. The humor and jokes are now repetitive, even the Mike Scully era was better than The Simpsons in it’s current state.

        Ask anyone and I bet most of the fans will agree that they’ve declined, they went from a depthful show with a storyline to a cartoon with pathetic attempt at zany humor and overly shoved pop culture references and guest stars in each episode, the only episodes I think reach to classic standards are Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind and Holidays of Future Passed.

        I think a few factors caused the show to decline, Mike Scully damaging the show, writers leaving the show and Al Jean messing everything up. Not to sound rude, but I think the show’s declined heavily.

      • It’s never rude to speak up and say what you believe as long as you don’t throw in insults or resort to name-calling. If you’re let down by the quality of recent episodes, then that’s your reality and it’s valid and you’re right … for you. You are probably right that many fans feel that the show has declined in quality over the years, but there are others who would disagree. I don’t know if there is a reliable, scientific study that determines what percentage of fans are in each camp, so I cannot agree or disagree that “most” fans will say the quality has declined. Maybe most of your friends feel that way. Most of my friends still enjoy the show, but maybe they’re prejudiced by being the friend of someone who works on the show.

        You express your thoughts very clearly and directly for one who’s only 14 years old. I still believe that you’ve lived long enough to see that many things around you and you yourself have changed a lot in the past 10 years. Remember iPhone 1 or the first XBOX? Facebook Wall vs. Facebook Timeline? You might counter by saying that those things are better now, but The Simpsons is worse, but my point is that nothing stays the same forever. You either embrace or reject the changes in your life and move on from there. May I recommend, for your own happiness, that if you reject a change, then forget about it and don’t dwell on it. Let it go. Why let it be a source of disappointment? Life is too short. At age 14 your active, healthy life is already about one-sixth OVER!

        Thanks again for commenting.

      • Interestingly, I teach college freshmen and many of them tell me that they don’t like it when they turn on a Simpsons rerun and it’s one from the 90s because they think the episodes from the last few years are so much better.

        I chalk up fan preference for different eras of The Simpsons to nostalgia/sentimental value. For 30-somethings like me, The Simpsons was breaking rules and first on TV during some great times in our lives: The prosperous Clinton Administration, fun, no responsibility, college, partying. Watching those episodes bring those feelings back and, because the show has always been so well-written, there is inherent pleasure in watching the show (and picking up on jokes we didn’t get at the time, or laughing at a joke that doesn’t mean much now, like a reference to the V-chip). If I love 90s Simpsons because they remind me of college, 20-somethings prefer 00s Simpsons because it reminds them of high school and college. Plus, The Simpsons was pretty shocking at first. When we watch an old episode, something in our subconscious remembers the scandal, the naughty little thrill we felt at the time. The show hasn’t gotten any more or any less subversive over the years, but it SEEMS less so because nothing shocks us anymore. (This is what I call the Family Guy Effect).

        Because of an association with positive memories, as individuals, we won’t really know if 2000s Simpsons is as good or better than 90s Simpsons until we’ve all had some years of separation. And then, it won’t matter anyway because tastes are subjective.

        BY THE WAY, This is the first time I’ve heard of someone of that age lamenting the end of 90s-era Simpsons. I’m more than a bit skeptical that the person who wrote that is 14. It’s possible that a 14-year-old might prefer Simpsons from the 1990s, I guess, but what 14-year-old knows who was show runner in which seasons? How many 14-year-olds have the vaguest idea how TV works behind the scenes at all? Some of those comments are straight from a certain website I know of whose raison d’etre is solely to attack The Simpsons after season 10 . . . Mean-spirited and rude, in my opinion. I love The Simpsons, season 3 and season 23!

      • The essence of what you’re saying can be boiled down to a few old chestnuts: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, “Everything is relative”, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder”.

        Mean-spirited maybe, but I can take it. All thoughtful criticism (not insults or bullying) is valid and should be heard. But it doesn’t mean that the criticism will be taken to heart or acted upon.

        Thanks for joining the fray!

      • Saying suck wasn’t an insult, it’s an expression I use when something’s bad. No I don’t remember the first iPhone or the first Xbox since I’ve never used either of them, Facebook is not that interesting to me. I’m guessing you’re referring to my teenage years as “active, healthy life”, to be honest I can’t wait until I’m 18 and actually get treated like an adult.

        I’ve had this opinion way before I’ve seen Family Guy, I never found The Simpsons shocking. Family Guy has shock value but I’ve rarely seen The Simpsons have shock value in it. And please don’t judge me by my age, I know what showrunners have been and gone, what I don’t get is why Al Jean has been the showrunner for so long. Most showrunners are gone within 2-3 years.

        I don’t attack The Simpsons, I just gave my opinion. And I think The Simpsons decline began at season 9 (although I consider season 9 a classic still) then went downhill from there. You’re referring to that Dead Homer Society, aren’t you? If you are I agree with what you said, but I don’t run the site.

      • Chris, I understand and know that and when guest stars play large parts in episodes, I rather enjoy that. I’m just saying, I’d rather not have guest stars for the sake of guest stars. I’d rather have guest stars for the sake of a good episode. Not some publicity stunt for either themselves of the episode. The guest stars you listed are all the guest stars from the last couple of seasons which I think have stood out other the others for their parts played in the episodes. But, some guest stars do still have one or two line cameos which really winds me up. It’s just a waste of a guest star. I know many others feel the same way about this too.

        What I do like, however, is crew members voicing characters. Dana Gould for instance. It’s because they’re only slightly famous for working on the show! I would love more crew members to voice characters.

        Also, I have nothing against Jeremy Irons guest spot. It was just the whole yeti thing I have a thing against. I was able to write the whole thing off as “the rag isn’t actually alive and speaking, it is just how it could be “thinking”, and until the yeti thing happened, the episode was fine. If they hadn’t have included the scene with the yeti being Moe’s father, I would have actually said it was a good episode. But that one scene ruined it for me as it is rather far fetched, even for The Simpsons.

      • I, too, don’t care for one-line guest star appearances (Britney Spears comes to mind), but once in a while, the one-liner visit can work like a good punch line. One of my favorite one-liners was Bill James’s appearance in MABF18 “MoneyBart”. As cool as Dana Gould’s Barney Fife imitation was, that would have also been a great one-liner cameo if Don Knotts (R.I.P.) had done it.

        Crew members doing voices is a very cool insiders thing. Dana Gould, Matt Groening, dialogue editor Terry Greene have all pitched in.

    • @Atwood Society, in response to your questions “what 14-year-old knows who was show runner in which seasons? How many 14-year-olds have the vaguest idea how TV works behind the scenes at all?”, Wikisimpsons, the Simpsons Wiki that I am the head of, is basically run by teenagers with very few people over the age of 18 working on it. Part of our work involves showrunners and other cast and crew members.
      —-
      What I’m also saying is if someone looks this stuff up, they can find it. It’s on the
      Internet and you don’t have to be a member of Dead Homer’s Society to know this stuff.

      I myself watch the newer episodes and don’t feel that they are as good as the older episodes. But that is because of a couple of reasons:
      1. Nostalgia. I remember these episodes from when I was a kid and I loved them
      then. Classic episodes such as “Bart Gets an F”, “Krusty Gets Kancelled”, and “Homer at the Bat”. I love these three episodes. Also, you may have noticed that two of those have many guest stars in, which brings me to
      2. Not as many guest star cameos. Sure, guest stars are great. They bring hype to the show which in turn brings in more viewers, which is always great, right? Not when the guest star in question (Aron Ralston for instance, who was really hyped up with so many news articles all over the Internet) had a 2 line what I wouldn’t even call a cameo as he never even appeared except in the form of a mobile phone. In older episodes, we didn’t have guest stars come in and go “Hi, I’m guest star.”, say something else then walk off the screen (Danica Patrick, “How Munched Is That Birdie in the Window”). I’m not saying that guest stars are bad. I’m saying I would like them to play bigger parts in the episodes they guest star in. And, from what I hear about “Lisa Goes Gaga”, Lady Gaga would be doing just that.

      On the other hand, what I do like is the amount of cultural references thrown into episodes now, compared to the older episodes. I also like how the animation style has improved and the graphics look a lot better. New The Simpsons is not bad (although I do have some reservations about “Moe Goes from Rags to Riches”, I mean, come on! Moe’s father’s a yeti?! But, other than the occasional “low point” (“The Principal and the Pauper”, which I’ve heard that even Matt Groening didn’t like), The Simpsons is great.

      Thank you for taking the time to read this. And sorry about my little rant about guest stars but that’s just how I feel.

      Reply ↓

      • Thanks for your 2 cents Callum.

        My one response to your comment is that recently the show is using guest stars to greater advantage and not just cameos (Andy Garcia, Neil Gaiman, Keifer Sutherland, Jeremy Irons [I know, not everyone’s fave], Bret McKenzie & Jemaine Clement, Joan Rivers, John Hamm, John Slattery, Martin Landau to name just a few).

        And hey, who knows? That bar rag is a thousand years old. How could he possibly remember the correct order of passage from one hand to another? Maybe he just got things mixed up.

      • If you look at Death Metal 2000’s first remark, he says ‘What happened to the show we knew from 1989-1997?”

        If he’s 14, he was probably born in 1997. He couldn’t “know” The Simpsons until sometime later. No, I don’t think the responder is actually 14 either, but I do feel that’s beside the point.

        Trolls have no age requirement or limit. Chris was much kinder to Death Metal 2000 than I would have been–a visitor on a blog (that no one is making him visit, just like no one is making him watch The Simpsons, or any TV, for that matter) dropping by just to say he thinks the show you work on “sucks.” Wow, Chris handled that well with patience and kindness that I strive for.

        I prefer guest stars, for the most part, to NOT play themselves, too (I give you that, Callum), but I think that, for the most part most people cannot explain why they rip on The Simpsons; it’s just a cool thing to do. It started with The Simpsons very early. I remember hearing it in the third/fourth seasons–Conan, Oakley and Weinstein’s influence changed the flavor of the show, which ultimately the consensus has decided was a Good Thing. But naysayers at the time were upset that their show was becoming more and more popular. (Early adopters don’t like it when everyone likes what they “discovered” so they dog it and move on to the next thing. Also, Callum, I hear you about “The Principal and the Pauper,” but it was not intended to be seen as canon but rather as a non-canon episode, along the lines of “22 Short Films” or “All Singing, All Dancing”).

        It’s a trend to rip on the show. It exhausts me; I’ve been hearing it since 1994. It’s my favorite show. I love it, I look forward to Sunday for it, I write about it, I teach it. There are plenty of shows that I don’t like, so I simply don’t watch them. I don’t look for blogs about those shows (or blogs written by people who work on those shows!) so I can voice my discontent (i.e. troll).

        Don’t believe me that most people who rip on the show are talking blank smack?

        Recently, a writer for NYMag admitted that when he wrote that The Simpsons should “hang it up” last year he was wrong and is only NOW watching seasons 15-23 and likes them. Seitz says, “I must formally withdraw my ‘should’ve packed it in’ verdict.” (Yes, he made the verdict previously, he admits, without watching the show since season 14).
        http://www.vulture.com/2012/02/the-simpsons-500-episode-unfair-criticism.html

      • I’m not sure where I stand on the “is he or isn’t he 14 years old?” question. I’m kind of leaning toward definitely under 18. The two clues for me are his newly-coined words like, “depthful” and “witted”, and that his rebuttals to my comments didn’t address any of my points; he just zeroed in on his, not engaging in dialogue.

        Thanks to DVDs and iTunes he could have watched the early years of the show dozens of times over by now, so maybe he “knows” the show pretty well.

        As I said in this post, today anything someone thinks can be tweeted, posted, or shared and consumed by millions in an instant. Given that fact, while it may not be polite to come to my blog and rip on my show, I kind of asked for it by creating such a public forum. I’ll repeat here what I’ve said elsewhere: thoughtful praise or criticism – fine; crude insults or bullying – not fine.

      • Fair enough!

        I saw the word coinage and the lack of counter-argument, too, but I see that kind of thing daily on college papers . . . I do rather like “depthful,” though. It’s much fancier than “deep.” I might give it a spin.

    • Du, what you said about “The Principal and the Pauper” being non-canon, we have had that discussion many, many times on Wikisimpsons and every time it has been inconclusive. Mainly because of the fact Skinner was called “Armin Tamzarian” my Lisa in “I, D’oh-bot” as well after she called Snowball V Snowball II. The actual cast and crew don’t seem to think of it as non-canon, what they actually seem to do is deny it’s existence 😛

      I also respect how Dead Homer’s Society feels and that’s up to them, as long as they keep it to their website and don’t go spreading it elsewhere. Death Metal’s question was kind of out of order though I agree and many others would agree reading this as it is a matter of opinion, and that is all it is. And i agree with everyone else, if you think The Simpsons sucks, don’t watch it. Although to me, The Simpsons is becoming somewhat of a chore (making galleries of appearances, writing plots, references sections, quotes, writing articles for new characters and locations and other users write out the entire credits too) but I still watch through the new episode without thinking about any of these first just to enjoy it as that is what I do and feel.

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      • Oh, Callum, don’t make me re-watch it with the commentary again . . . I have too much work to do! Regardless of what’s in the commentary, though (I swear the words “experiment” and “deus ex machina” are in there, but I can’t be sure without whipping the DVD out) deus ex machina is precisely what it’s doing, and Keeler, Oakley, & Weinstein can’t be held accountable for what the show does afterwards. The beauty of the animated sitcom is that it gets to revel in the fact that it’s not a traditional sitcom and not bound by such limitations. That episode, love it or hate it, celebrates its freedom.

        Retcon, babies, just go with it.

        Back to Death Metal 2000, yes, his question was out of order, as you say. I think his backpedaling about his use of the word “suck” was more of a stretch than Skinner really being a no-goodnik named Armin Tamzarian! (He said, “Saying suck wasn’t an insult, it’s an expression I use when something’s bad.” That’s like saying “Calling your baby a hideous monster wasn’t an insult, that’s just an expression I use to describe something really ugly!” Hmm, maybe he is 14).

        One nice thing about Dead Homers is they do keep it over there for the most part. Once, they felt like arguing with (and by “arguing with” I mean “ripping to shreds”) a blog post of mine, and instead of trolling on my blog, they pasted it into theirs and discussed it over there. I respected that move.

    • “The Simpsons”, like just about all TV shows these days, is written by a team of writers with credit usually going to the writer who wrote and pitched the story idea. We established a rule for fairness long ago that gives lyric credit on a song to the writer who receives the “written by” credit for the episode. Whether or not that writer wrote 100% of the lyrics is unknown to me since I’m not “in the room” when the writing happens.

      Justin Hurwitz gets the credit for the parody lyrics to “Walking on the Moon”.

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